Facing The Music
by increak96
Summary: After his first love was taken away, he never thought he'd try again... but fate has a funny way of running things. Complete AU, ZeroxOC, implied KanamexYuki, Kaname and Yuki bashing.
1. Chapter 1

He pulled his coat collar up higher, shielding his neck from the harsh winter air. He shifted his legs to the acoustic guitar was more situated for playing, and with numb fingers, he strummed a few chords, trying to find the one that was just right to set the mood for the following song.

"Hey."

He glanced up, lavender eyes examining the newcomer before him. A girl in black pants and a Giant employee shirt on stood before him, her coat hanging open as if she wanted to let the sting in.

"Yeah?"

He was never one for speaking loudly, and especially not with strangers. Not that he knew anyone except strangers. He was a loner. No family, no friends, no social life. Just him and his guitar.

"You haven't played in, like, ten minutes now. What's the hold up?"

She leaned back against the pole, her stature casual, brunette hair brushing her shoulders as she tugged it out of her eyes.

"Which one do you want to hear?" he asked, giving a few plucks to the strings.

She shrugged her shoulders, taking a long drink from her coffee cup. "I don't care. Just play me one, and I'll see if I know it."

He was quiet for a moment, and then found that chord he was looking for and began to play. She bobbed her head with the music, starting to move a little, and then she nodded. "Yeah, I know this one."

He smiled slightly, barely hearing her words as the electric feel of the guitar spread through him. His fingers didn't need his brain to tell them where to go, they just knew. Guitar had been something he always loved, but lately it had been his route to survival—financially and emotionally.

"Her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining. Her hair, her hair, falls perfectly without her trying…"

He glanced up at the sound of her voice, a smile gracing his lips. Her voice was beautiful, and he strummed a little softer, giving her a look that meant, 'sing louder'.

She blushed, shaking her head. "No way, I don't sing."

He gave her a hard stare, and then shrugged his shoulders, nodding gratefully to a man who placed a five dollar bill in the hat at his feet.

"When I see your face…"

"Hey, if you're going to sing, you have to sing so people can hear you," he snapped, giving her another look.

She straightened up and sighed, pushing her bangs out of her eyes, only to have them stubbornly fall down again. "'Cause you're amazing, just the way you are! And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while, 'cause girl you're amazing, just the way you are."

He picked up the beat a little and felt himself moving with the music, foot keeping rhythm as his hands played the melody, his entire body going with the pulsing flow.

"You know, you know, you know I'd never ask you to change. If perfect's what you're searching for then just stay the same."

His gaze travelled upwards, peeking out between silver bangs at his new cohort. She was really getting into it. Hips swaying, hands moving through her hair, belting out the melody. And her eyes… they weren't closed like most singers. She was staring into his eyes, and it was like she was talking to him. In a way, it was weird, because she kept calling him 'girl' and she said his laugh was sexy, but in another way… it was just right.

"The way you are, the way you are. 'Cause you're amazing, just the way you are."

They continued like that, and he noticed her gaze start to travel elsewhere. It was then that he realized a small crowd had formed, and his hat was filled rather quickly as they finished off their duet. Light clapping and a few more bills tossed into the cap… and then it was just the two of them.

"You're good," was all he said, and he knew it was lame, but it was honest. He wasn't much for poetry anyways.

"Thanks." Apparently, neither was she.

"How much of this do you want?" he asked, picking up the fedora and counting out the money, which was a nice sum now.

She shook her head, holding up her hands and taking a few steps back. "Nah, I'm good. Just got my paycheck, and it's enough to get me until next month."

He gave her a curious look, and she laughed.

"Okay, fine. Next _week_."

He smiled slightly, casing his precious instrument and pocketing the cash. He handed her a twenty and tipped his now empty hat. "Then we'll do this again next week, and you can make it to the week after that."

She didn't say anything for a moment, and then she nodded slowly, turning towards the parking lot. "Yeah, sounds good." She walked towards her car, and he started towards his apartment. A car was not a luxury he had. Yet.

"Hey, wait!"

He tilted his head, looking over his shoulder at her with a blank expression.

"You never told me your name!"

He let a soft smirk tug the edges of his mouth. "Zero. Call me Zero."

"Cool. I'm Kira. See ya' 'round!"

Zero waved slightly as she left, and then he continued his walk towards his home. He lifted his hand to his nose and breathed in slowly.

_She smells really nice._

He shook his head. Never in a million years. Zero was not a second-chance-giver, and after _her_… no. Just no.

He glanced down at his watch.

_Hour and a half until work… Great._


	2. Chapter 2

Kira opened one eye blearily, slapping her clock to the floor and rolling over in bed.

_No work today. House is a mess. Dishes to do. Paperwork to finish. Ugh…_

Yawning loudly, she dragged herself out of bed, stumbling over the clock on the floor and into the bathroom, laughing at her crazy bedhead. Rolling her eyes, she brushed it out, pulling the short locks back into a high ponytail, pinning her bangs back and applying a little eye liner to make her look more awake.

She returned to her bedroom, changing into an old pair of jeans and a black cami, grabbing her MP3 player and hooking it up to her boom box, turning it up all the way and flicking the lights on. She looked around at her room, letting out a long stream of air before she started to clean.

She gathered her laundry, put all of the trash in the trash can, and gathered the dirty dishes before moving onto the bathroom, which was noticeably messier. Once she threw out all of the expired stuff, however, she had much more room to work with. Then it was just a matter of scrubbing all the stains and throwing the shower curtain in the washer.

Then it was the living room, and then it was the kitchen, and then it was the storage room. Around one o' clock, she was done. Exhausted, but done.

Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, she plopped onto the couch and took a long drink, catching her breath as the music switched to REO.

"Mm… Love this song…"

She hummed it to herself as she sat in the small house, going over the rest of that day's to-do list.

A loud growl interrupted her train of thought. She looked down at her stomach, laughing.

"Sorry, I guess you got neglected there. Let's go grab some eggs and bacon, hmm?"

Standing up, she threw on her boots and grabbed a jacket, her purse, and her keys, heading out the door with a sway in her step.

"'Cause you're amazing… just the way you are…" she sang quietly to herself as she walked out to her beat-up Grand Am, hopping in the driver's seat and starting the engine.

_Zero, huh? He was a cutie… and he seemed really sweet. Kinda shy and a little bit… bitter? Angry? But relatively nice. I should've got his number… who knows when I'll see him again._

She sighed heavily, shaking her head as she pulled out of the driveway, heading down the road.

_You let another one get away, Kira. Well done._

* * *

><p>Zero stopped for a moment to catch his breath, untying his apron and aligning it with his belt before tying it again. Taking a quick drink of water, he grabbed the ringing phone off the hook and stood at the register, taking a customer's bill and quickly ringing them up.<p>

"Don's Restaurant, how may I help you?"

He nodded slowly, listening to the order as he rung out three more customers, his fingers flying across the keypad.

"Alright, that'll be ready in about twenty-five minutes. Thank you, have a great day." He hung up the phone and rung out the last man, grabbing his tablet from his apron and scribbling down the five-person order, walking through the kitchen and throwing it on the spinner before writing up 'brown sugar' on the whiteboard.

"We're out," he said to no one in particular. Grabbing several plates, he lined them up his arms, ignoring the slight sting and grabbing a final dish in his other hand. Giving the door a hefty kick, he stepped out and walked up the stairs, making his way over to a circle table and handing out the dishes.

"Is that everything?" he asked, wiping his hands on his pants.

There were several shakes and the usual 'no, thank you' and 'this looks good' and whatnot. With a nod and light smile, he turned to go, freezing when he saw the group entering in the front door. A groan escaped his lips when he saw who it was.

_It's just one of those days, isn't it?_

Zero grabbed a new pad from beneath the register and walked to the upper levels.

"Can I take your order?" he asked, slipping his pen from behind his ear.

"O. M. G. Zero?!" Yuki laughed, throwing her head back. "No way!"

Kaname smirked, pretending to look at the menu. "Hmm, I'll have the Zero Kiryuu special dipped in stupid with a side of worthless."

"Me, too!" Aido sniggered, trying, as always, to be cool when he wasn't.

Ruka smirked, stirring her tea. "Throw a little failure on mine. Or is that a given?"

Zero gripped his pen a little tighter. "Fresh out, I'm afraid."

Kaname feigned innocence, folding the menu over his lap. "But Zero, you can five me some of yours, can't you?"

_You need to pay rent, you need to pay rent…_

"Can I please take your order?"

There were a few more jabs, but finally Zero got everyon's orders.

"Thanks." He took the menus from Yuki and turned to go, but Kaname snagged his arm.

"One more thing: Could I get a refill?"

Zero looked at his glass. "But it's full."

"Actually, I spilled it."

Zero barely had time to register the words before his entire front ran ice cold.

Soaked.

The table burst into hysterical laughter, and as the situation sank in, Zero slid from freezing to burning, vision blurring as his rage escalated.

"You—!"

"Zero!"

Zero froze at the feminine voice and turned slightly. The girl he had met outside the Giant store the day before was standing just a few yards away, her hand covering her mouth.

"Oh my gosh!" She ran over to him, brunette waves bouncing. "Baby, what happened?"

"Baby?" his eyebrows shot up, utterly confused.

"Come on, Zero, let me take care of you." She continued as if he hadn't said anything, seizing his arm and pulling him towards herself.

"T-take care—?"

Kira grabbed his collar, tracing his jawline with her finger. "Yeah… take care of you."

Zero felt his face flush. "But—"

"Get rid of these nasty clothes… and I'll clean you right up." She gripped his collar, licking her lips. "C'mon."

He stuttered, cheeks bright red as she pulled him away, surprised shouts sounding out behind him.

"Kiryuu has a girlfriend?"

"How?!"

"That just isn't possible!"

"Kaname! Stop looking at her legs!"

They rounded the corner, and Zero finally found his voice, pulling away from her slightly.

"Look, Kira, you're really sweet and all, but we just met and—"

Kira laughed, grabbing his tablet and shaking her head. "Relax, I'm not that kinda girl. Go dry off."

Zero nodded wordlessly and stepped into the bathroom, grabbing some paper towels and trying to dry his shirt and pants.

_Stupid Kurans… of all the…_

Drying as quickly as he could, he stepped out of the bathroom, sighing when he saw her standing there with his apron.

"Nothing sexier than a man in an apron. Except maybe a man in a kilt." She smiled widely, handing it to him, and he grinned.

"You got some sort of weird fetish for cross dressers?" He tied the apron on and looked at the orders she had taken, nodding his head.

"Maybe I do." She tilted her head slightly, grinning like the devil. "You got a problem with that?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Not at all." He paused, feeling a little awkward, and then pointed towards the kitchen. "Well, I've gotta get back to work…"

She nodded. "I put my order in, so I'll be sitting up top waiting." Kira gave a little wave and walked away.

_No one's ever stood up for me like that except… _He shook his head. _It was nice._

He jumped as he heard the bell ringing endlessly from inside the kitchen.

"Ack! Coming!"

* * *

><p>Kira sat down at a table for two not that far from the group of teenagers Zero had been with earlier. Within two minutes of listening to their conversation, it was obvious these were the 'grow up yet somehow never leave high school behind' types. The drama, the romance, this person with that person, on again off again, living with their parents, bumming money from said parents—the list went on and on.<p>

_Geeze, people like this annoy me. If you can't get a job, fine, it's called bad economy but… for the love of Mike at least try!_

Kira turned her gaze to the lower level, her eyes following his every move. He was working hard and even though he wasn't overly cheerful, he was able to present a smile when it was necessary. He was also really good with kids—even when they were the bratty type that made messes.

_He has a lot of patience… I would lose my mind working in a place like this._

Kira smiled lightly, leaning back in her chair as he came up to the steps, walking over to her table and giving her a smile. "To drink?" he asked, handing her a menu.

Kira flipped it over, scanning the beverages. "Uh… birch beer, please."

Zero nodded. "You know what you want awhile?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna get the special."

"How do you want your eggs?"

"Over easy." She paused. "You have a moment to sit?"

He glanced around. "Um… not right now. If you give it maybe… twenty minutes?"

Kira glanced at her watch and then nodded. "Sure, why not? Lunch's on me."

Zero blinked. "That's alright. I'll buy—"

"Zero," she grabbed his hand, heart jumping in her chest. "It's on me, okay?"

Zero nodded. "Alright. I'll throw this order in and bring your drink up."

She smiled and gave him a thumbs up. "Sweet."

Zero turned and made his way down the steps, heading straight for the register. She followed him with her eyes, a grin still lingering on her face.

_Maybe… just maybe…_

He heart pounded in her chest, and for the first time in years, she didn't want to stop it.


	3. Chapter 3

He wasn't sure how it happened, but lunch turned into a walk through the snow-covered town, which turned into a road trip to the beach, which lead to laughing and singing and playing in the waves until it was time to drive back. It was… magical, in its own little, sweet, cliché sort of way. It was the kind of day he hadn't had since he was a child.

"I had a great time."

Zero's head turned at the sound of her voice, his lips pulling up into a small smile. "Yeah. I did, too. Been a while…" He let his voice trail off. _I was happy today because I wasn't focusing on my own pitiful situation. For a while, I stopped thinking about everything that was wrong. Bringing it up to myself or anyone else is a surefire way to ruin my mood._

"Me, too." Kira looked out the window at the darkness beyond, blinking sleepily and pulling her blanket around her shoulders more securely. "I still can't believe we went to the beach…" She giggled. "When I still lived with my mom, we did this kind of crazy stuff all the time. She was really… spontaneous."

Taking a sip of his drink—a freshly brewed iced tea laced with fruit-flavored syrup—he pressed her on the offered topic. "Are you more of a structure person?"

She sighed, shaking her head. "I… don't know. I think I'm spontaneous, but we always managed to fight about where we would go and what we would do and whether or not it was a good idea." She paused to sip her own beverage. "I guess we were too alike."

Zero nodded slowly, swirling the liquid around in the glass as he searched for a way to voice his thoughts. "Well… I think that's normal. I always had that problem with my dad. I took after him, and I was just like him in a lot of ways, but we… clashed at any and every turn." Which was why he wound up here, miles from home, pretending he didn't need his family to hold him up anymore. "My brother and my mom had similar issues."

Kira shifted among the blanket, turning towards the male and leaning against the back of the couch. "Tell me more about your family." Her voice was muted with sleep but held a sincere tone of interest, her hand coming up to cover a yawn.

Laughter shook his shoulders, and he turned his eyes towards the ceiling with a reminiscent, almost bitter sigh. "I have a mother, father, and twin brother. They're all living, and they're not too far from here." He sighed softly. "I mean—they're a couple hours from here, but they're not in a different country or anything." It was a weak sort of argument, but it was the only thing his brain would give to his tongue. "My, uh, my dad was a mechanic, and my mom worked a lot of different jobs. She loved to craft stuff, so she'd sell her creations at different fairs and stuff. She would help people garden, she would work at restaurants and factories… really anything she had the time and health for."

Kira listened with rapt attention, surprising him by opening her eyes wider rather than falling into the warm embrace of sleep. "Were you happy? I mean, did you all get along for the most part?"

He nodded. "Yeah, mostly." Swallowing, he picked at a piece of lint on his thigh. "It wasn't until I got older that things went south. I just—" he shrugged helplessly, his lips twisting into a confused scowl, "—I just didn't want to take over the family business. I wanted to… get out in the world, and see new things, and…"

She stared up at him, waiting for him to regain the sentence he had dropped just a moment ago, but he didn't. He drank from the glass in his hands and stared at the wall, his face fading into a state of apathetic nothingness.

"And…?" she pressed.

"And now I wait tables in a small town with no intention of ever moving somewhere bigger or better." He shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, it would probably be more exciting to spend the day under the hood of a car, but I guess that's how life works, huh?"

Kira gave him a soft smile, taking another sip of tea and pausing for a few moments before offering a reply to his rhetorical question. "I think that life has a way of humbling us, yes. Showing us things we need to see, whether or not we really want to see them." She took a deep breath, her shoulders climbing and falling in synch. "If you had stayed home and worked on cars, you never would have known whether what you found out here was better or worse than what you left behind. It's a lesson—it's the part of growing up that helps us make better decisions."

There was a brief silence, and she shrugged her shoulders, ducking her head to take another sip with a quiet utterance. "At least, that's how I see it…"

Zero didn't say anything for a while, contemplating what she had said as he polished off the rest of the drink and set the empty glass aside. "So then… do you believe in second chances?"

She looked up at him, brow creased in thought. Then she smiled. "Yes. I do."

For a moment, neither of them spoke, staring at each other in the dim light of the evening. He could hear her breathing softly, though the sound soon faded beneath the pounding of his own heartbeat on the inside of his chest.

Slowly extending his hand, he cupped the side of her face and leaned closer, parting his lips as they came to brush against hers. _Soft._ That was the first thought that invaded his mind. Her lips were soft and sweet, and the strands of hair that fell over his hand smelled like the ocean and the sunshine and everything good about the day they had spent together.

Too soon—entirely too soon—he pulled away, meeting her eyes and breaking the silence. "If someone is going to give me a second chance, I better hand out some of them myself. There's no point in staying hung up on old wounds forever, right?"

Kira flushed but nodded her head, smiling widely. "Right. Gotta start fresh."

"Exactly." He leaned back, putting his feet up on the coffee table and turning his attention to the woman at his left. "Now, tell me about your family. Do you have any siblings?"

And as Kira started to explain her own family and past to him, he couldn't help but feel that he really was receiving a second chance. His first attempt at a new life hadn't worked out, but maybe he could try again. His first attempt at love hadn't worked out, but here he was, on the couch with a young woman he could easily see himself spending quite a bit of time with over the next year or so. Getting to know her. Maybe winding up with something more. Something permanent.

It wasn't much, just a ghost of a chance, but it was _there._

And he was going to take it.

* * *

><p><strong>-End<strong>

**_Mentions: NavyRose, Kage no Akuma-Shadow Demon, Ronniriot, Guest, Mya Kiryu, and xmxoxoxnxy. Thank you all for your replies, and I'm sorry I let this story sit for so long._**


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